Rescued Green Sea Turtle Comber Awaits Travel to Sea World San Diego

Summary: Rescued green sea turtle Comber awaits travel to Sea World San Diego as his next home, according to Vancouver Aquarium updates Wednesday, March 30.

Comber enjoys back scratches from the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue team: Vancouver Aquarium @vanaqua, via Facebook March 30, 2016

Rescued green sea turtle Comber awaits finalized travel paperwork for the formerly hypothermic juvenile’s transport to his new temporary home at SeaWorld San Diego, according to updates Wednesday, March 30, 2016, via Vancouver Aquarium’s Aqua Blog and Facebook page.

“The best part of this job is watching animals get better and work toward release,” Sion Cahoon, a veterinary technologist with the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre, says in the March 30 blog posting.

In the course of the juvenile’s residency at the Vancouver Aquarium, he has acquired the name of Comber, derived from the remote beach on Vancouver Island’s southwest coast where the beached, far-from-home hypothermic green sea turtle was discovered Saturday, Jan. 23. Comber is now healthy enough for Vancouver Aquarium’s veterinary team, under the direction of chief veterinarian Martin Haulena, to begin travel arrangements for relocation to a warmer latitude.

Sea World San Diego will serve as Comber’s new temporary home. At Sea World San Diego Comber joins about 90 rescued sea turtles who all await release into the wild as soon as ocean temperatures rise.

During his residency of more than two months, Comber has been enlightening Vancouver Aquarium staff and volunteers about himself and his endangered species. Green sea turtles are unfamiliar visitors in Canadian waters. Canada’s Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific coasts all fall outside green sea turtles’ normal subtropical and tropical range between the latitudes of 30 degrees south and 30 degrees north.

“He’s kind of the highlight of our day,” Sion Cahoon explains.

Quarantine in a small pool in the centre’s basement does not mean isolation for rescued green sea turtle Comber. Groups of volunteers sign up to help feed Comber and to give him the back scratches that he thoroughly enjoys.

Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre staff think that rescued green sea turtle Comber is a juvenile male. Indications that Comber is a male include front flipper prominence; carapace, or shell, curvature; and tail length.

Staff place Comber in the juvenile stage. His age range is estimated at between 12 and 20 years. As omnivores, juvenile green sea turtles include seafood in their diet. In adulthood, green sea turtles transition to a strictly herbivorous diet of algae and sea grasses.

Comber displays a juvenile’s enthusiasm for seafood. His favorite food is shrimp. He also has been “enthusiastically chomping on” capelin (a slender, small forage fish in the smelt family), herring and squid.

“Comber the rescued sea turtle has come a long way from his hypothermic state when he was found on a Tofino beach nearly two months ago,” Vancouver Aquarium’s Aqua Blog notes March 30.

Rescued green sea turtle Comber’s seemingly miraculous turnaround from a barely responsive and hypothermic beach find to an alert, healthy eater attests to the concerned care that he has been receiving since admission Saturday, Jan. 23, as an in-patient at the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Center. Comber’s body temperature, on his rescue day, had plummeted to 11.2 degrees Celsius (52.16 degrees Fahrenheit). Green sea turtles register a normal body temperature range of 20 to 25 degrees Celsius (68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit).

Comber’s good news story is heading toward the happy ending that Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre hopes for their in-patients.

“Sick and injured animals like Comber are cared for by the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Centre, presented by Port Metro Vancouver and supported by Teekay Shipping,” Vancouver Aquarium’s blog posting notes. “Rescue Centre staff attend to more than 100 sick, injured and stranded marine animals each year and rehabilitate them for release back into their natural habitat.”

head veterinarian Martin Haulena (left) and veterinary technologist Sion Cohoon (right) with Comber at Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Center: Vancouver Aquarium @vanaqua, via Twitter March 30, 2016

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Comber enjoys back scratches from the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue team: Vancouver Aquarium @ vanaqua, via Facebook March 30, 2016, @ https://www.facebook.com/vanaqua/posts/10153368975110800

head veterinarian Martin Haulena (left) and veterinary technologist Sion Cohoon (right) with Comber at Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Center: Vancouver Aquarium @vanaqua, via Twitter March 30, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/vanaqua/status/715248555569639424

For further information:

Marriner, Derdriu. "Hypothermic Green Sea Turtle Beached in British Columbia Far From Home" Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/01/hypothermic-green-sea-turtle-beached-in.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Rescued Green Sea Turtle Comber Soon Leaves Vancouver Aquarium." Earth and Space News. Saturday, March 26, 2016.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/03/rescued-green-sea-turtle-comber-soon.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Vancouver Aquarium Reports Hypothermic Green Sea Turtle Steadily Heals." Earth and Space News. Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/02/vancouver-aquarium-reports-hypothermic.html

“Rescued Sea Turtle Gaining Strength, Getting Ready for Release." Aquablog. March 30, 2016.
Available at http://www.aquablog.ca/2016/03/rescued-sea-turtle-gaining-strength-getting-ready-for-release/

Vancouver Aquarium @ vanaqua. "Comber the rescued green sea turtle has come a long way from his hypothermic state when he was found on a Tofino beach nearly two months ago." Facebook. March 30, 2016.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/vanaqua/posts/10153368975110800

Vancouver Aquarium @vanaqua. "Rescued sea turtle getting stronger and ready for release." Twitter. March 30, 2016.
Available @ https://twitter.com/vanaqua/status/715248555569639424